The latest Technology Refreshes for IBM i, TR2 for 7.2 and TR10 for 7.1, are available today to download. You can learn more about them from IBM's developerWorks web site here.
You can learn more about what is in these Technology Refreshes from these posts:
We have been given a number of SQL views that allow us to harvest information from our IBM i's, and many are unaware of their existance.
With the move from DDS files to SQL tables, indexes, and views I needed to update my toolset to be able to list information about the last two in a quick to run and easy to read way. Fortunately I can use some of these views to do so:
A SQL View is a virtual table. Its columns can come from one or more SQL tables or DDS files. The data in the View is not stored in its own database object. When the View is used the Select statement is executed to produce the data. You can also create, what I call, "derived" columns. The "derived" columns do not exist in the original tables/files, they are calculated when the Select statement is run.
In the examples I am going to show how I can code "derived" fields in a View to:
In my last post I wrote about how to convert DDS files to SQL DDL using the QSQGNDDL API, you can read it here, and I mentioned that in IBM i 7.2 and 7.1 TR9 there was an alternative, the GENERATE_SQL SQL procedure.
Having used both I prefer GENERATE_SQL as it is simpler to use, just one statement in STRSQL, and it has the ability to use wild cards for mass conversions. Many of its parameters are in English, which makes it easier for others to understand my code. The has six mandatory parameters:
As part of the IBM i 7.1 release IBM notified us all of their intentions not to perform any future enhance to DDS for data (physical and logical) files, and are encouraging us to migrate those files to their equivalents in SQL (tables, views, and indexes). For many of us this is an overwhelming proposition as the applications we support contain many thousands of files. To convert these by hand would take a very long time. Fortunately IBM has an API, 'Generate Data Definition Language' (QSQLGNDDL), to assist.
I am sure we have experienced running a program when it errors with "Decimal-data error occurred", RNQ0907. After analyzing the program I would find that the error is caused by bad data in a field in the input file. Yes, I will correct the bad data, but I might want to have the program continue using a default value and create a dump that can be used for analysis later. Examples of creating dumps can be found in the post: Producing a dump from programs.
How can I flag the record as having an error, give the numeric field a default value, and continue processing?
More information for the new Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.2 TR2 and 7.1 TR10, is slowly coming out.
The release date for these is May 29 2015 with the following PTF numbers:
IBM's announcement letter can be found here.
The enhancements RPG can be found in the "Whats new since 7.2", mixed with the 7.2 TR1 enhancements, here.
And the MC Press has an article about the DB2 for i (SQL) changes here.
Once I can get access to a server with one of these Technology Refreshes I will start writing about them here.
The details for what is included in IBM i 7.2 Technology Refresh 2, TR2, and IBM i 7.1 TR10 is now out!
IBM has a page for the DB2 for i (SQL) enhancements in these Technology Refreshes: here.
It would appear that as both the Technology Refreshes contain the same the details are given on the TR2 page.
Things that caught my eye are:
Now I need to find what enhancements, if any, have been made to RPG and CL.
Today at the Common User group meeting at Disneyland new Technology Refreshes were announced:
No details yet, but there are pages on IBM's website for both Refreshes:
As soon as I learn more about these I will publish it here on this blog.
Steve Will's, IBM i Chief Architect, presentation on what is in IBM i 7.2 TR2 is ongoing at the Common meeting. He has given us a taste of what is to come in a blog post here.
There are times when an error is encountered in a program, particularly one that is running in batch, which I do not want to "error out" with a message. I want to cope with the error within the program, flag that there was an error so that I can resolve the issue later, and continue processing. If I can generate a program dump when the error occurs I have all the information I need to be able to fix it. CL's DMPCLPGM command and RPG's DUMP operation code do that without the need to break for an error message, producing the same output as if I had answered an error message with an option "D".
I am surprised at the number of IBM i developers who are unaware that it is possible to produce a dump without an error message. I would prefer to cope with errors and produce a dump within a program rather than receiving a 2 AM phone call from the night operator telling me that there is an error that is holding everything else up, and what am I going to do about it?
This is a video of the presentation Tim Rowe, Business Architect for application development on IBM i, made to Common Europe:
Previously IBM had announced that support for the IBM i 6.1 and 6.1.1 versions of their operating system would end on September 30, 2015. On April 14 they announced a "service extension for IBM I V6R1":
IBM Software Support Services - service extension for IBM i V6R1 provides support for usage questions, problem determination assistance, and support for new fixes. With this service, IBM product specialists can help you simplify management of your IBM i 6.1 operating system as well as resolve issues more quickly and efficiently when they do happen, thereby minimizing risk of business disruption.